Persepolis

By Robbie Collin

PERSEPOLIS is a feature-length cartoon, mostly in black and white, made in France, written by an Iranian feminist, about a young woman's coming of age and political strife in the Middle East.

Not exactly Toy Story, is it?

On paper, sounds of interest only to pompous, lentil-eating bores. In reality—and I'm as surprised as you—it's frickin' excellent. Really.

It is the story of Marjane, a girl growing up in Iran during the 80s. She buys pop music tapes as if they were Class A drugs, sneaks out to house parties and generally sticks two fingers up at one of the most sinister regimes on the planet.

Beautifully animated, sharp as a tack, never dry or preachy and with a fair smattering of laugh-out-loud moments, Persepolis deserves its Oscar nomination.

If you only see one black-and-white French cartoon written by an Iranian feminist this year, you should make it this one.